Focus Tracking Video Overview - Part 1

--[Slide]--

Tracking Focus

Regulation 1194.21(c) states
"A well-defined on-screen indication of the current
focus shall be provided that moves among interactive
interface elements as the input focus changes. The focus
shall be programmatically exposed so that assistive
technology can track focus and focus changes."

Note: both slides include the title 1194.21(c) Focus
and a Department of Veterans Affairs logo.

--[Narrator]--

The next regulation is about the tracking of focus. Focus is what
enables a user to know where they are within your application.

There are two things you need to think about here. You need to, one,
visually make focus able to be discovered within your application,
using some type of UI, either a focus rectangle or a blinking caret,
to indicate that the item currently has focus. The focus also needs
to be available programmatically to a screen reader or other
assistive technology. We will show you an example of how to test that
this event is being raised.

--[Slide]--

Track Focus

Use standard Delphi Controls to ensure focus can be tracked
by AT.

If custom control you will need to visually indicate focus
on screen.

Need to raise OBJ_FOCUS event when focus moved to control
or to item within control

--[Narrator]--

The key thing when working with this regulation is to make sure you
use standard Delphi controls. I'm going to keep saying this throughout
the presentation, and it just helps to save you a lot of work in the
long run.

If you use the standard controls that ship with Delphi or other UI
platforms, typically the work has been done to make those controls meet
all of these regulations. For example, the standard Delphi controls do
all of the requirements of focus, themselves. You do need to be careful
when using custom controls or if you significantly modify the default
behavior of a standard control.

If you have really developed a new custom control, you will have to get
down into the Windows level event system and raise an OBJ_FOCUS event
when focus is moved to your control and/or item within your control.